THE SAXON SHORE WAYStage 4: Gillingham Station to Lower HalstowSaturday, January 1st 2011

I walked this section of the Saxon Shore Way on New Year's Day 2011.
I started out at Gillingham Station at dawn, feeling a little under the
weather after joining the celebrations in Faversham the previous night.

(1) Disused railway line

(2) Hillyfields Community Park

(3) Church of St Mary Magdalene

(4) Strand Leisure Park

The route follows Railway Street beside the station and then turns left into
Kingswood Road.
At the end of this road the route turns right over a disused railway (picture 1),
then continues down Parr Avenue until it reaches some fancy gates on a footpath
that leads into Hillyfields Community Park (picture 2).
The path heads around the left side of the park to Church Path, where the route
turns left down Church Road and then right into Gillingham Green, which leads
into the churchyard of St Mary Magdalene (picture 3).

The path heads downhill some distance past the church before turning left along a
footpath leading out of the churchyard.
Here the path followed a narrow footpath around a fenced off construction site.
This path leads to a residential street that joins the A289 Pier Road.
The route here turns to the left along Pier Road, though a signpost here
incorrectly points the other way along the road to the right.

After a few hundred metres the route turns to the right into the Strand Leisure Park
passing the swimming pool and following the promenade east along the bank of the
Medway (picture 4).

(5) Kingsnorth Power Station

(6) Nautical garden

(7) Riverside Country Park

(8) Rainham Creek

The National Cycle Network shares the same route at this point. and looking beyond
another of the fancy NCN signposts I could just make out the Kingsnorth Power Station
across the river on the Hoo Peninsula (picture 5).

As the path along the riverbank leaves the Leisure Park, it is briefly diverted
away from the water on a broad footpath between boatyards, soon returning to the
river near a group of terrace houses, one of which has a very nautically themed
garden (picture 6).

Soon the route once again diverts away from the river, around some old
industrial buildings, following a footpath beside a corrugated iron fence
for some distance before returning to the river's edge where the route
follows an unsurfaced, but well-maintained footpath along the floodbank.

Soon the path enters the Riverside Country Park (picture 7), where it continues
along a broad, even path near the water's edge for several kilometres.
Along this section of the trail there were many people out walking and cycling
despite the rather cold and gloomy weather.

Beyond the Country Park, the path passes the remains of several old boats
that are slowly decaying in the shallow water next to Rainham Creek (picture 8).

(9) Path towards Motney Hill

(10) View over Otterham Creek

(11) Path away from Otterham Quay Lane

(12) The Brown Jug, Upchurch

Soon the path turns to the left, following the floodbank along a peninsula towards the low Motney Hill (picture 9).
After about 600 metres, the route leaves the floodbank and joins the road, cutting
across the peninsula past some houses and then following the boundary fence of a
sewage works back to the floodbank beside Otterham Creek (picture 10).

At the end of the creek, the route turns right and follows the fenceline of some
industrial buildings, joining the driveway where the fence ends (although here a Saxon
Shore Way sign points in the wrong direction into an orchard).
At the end of the driveway, the route turns left into Otterham Quay Lane, which soon
curves round to the right.
Shortly after this, the Saxon Shore Way leaves the road to the left, climbing
along a roughly fenced path (picture 11) to reach the corner of an orchard.
The route marked on the Ordnance Survey map shows the route heading diagonally across
the orchard, but there is no path there, so instead I turned left and followed
two edges of the orchard to reach the opposite corner, where a gap in the hedge
by a large metal tank leads out onto Horsham Lane and a waymarker that confirmed the
route.

Following the narrow road for a few hundred metres past some houses in the village of
Upchurch, the route passes The Brown Jug pub (picture 12), where I stopped for a pint
and a snack.

(13) View across the Horsham Marshes

(14) Muddy horse paddock near Wetham Green

(15) Broken signpost at Ham Green

(16) Floodbank near Ham Green

The Saxon Shore Way continues along the road until a driveway forks off to the
left. There's no waymarker at the fork in the road, but there is a marker disc on
a post where the driveway becomes a farm track past a house.
The route continues along the track with an apple orchard uphill to the right and
Upchurch beyond, while to the left is a good view across the Horsham Marshes to
Otterham Creek and the Medway (picture 13).

At the end of the track the route heads briefly to the left and passes through a
gap in the hedge and then across a field to join a road at Wetham Green.
The route follows the road to the left for a short distance before a sign hidden in
the hedge directs the walker off the road to the right along a narrow path
beside some horse paddocks.
After passing some old stables, the path turns to the left, crossing a very muddy
horse paddock between two metal kissing gates (picture 14).

The route then passes through another orchard before reaching a minor road at
Ham Green, where a broken signpost (picture 15) obscures the fact that the
trail turns to the right along the road for a few metres until another signpost
points to the left past some houses and along Shoregate Lane.

At the end of Shoregate Lane, a footpath leads back onto the floodbank beside
a small boatyard.
The next section of the path along the top of the floodbank has large areas of
marshy land below the floodbank to the left of the path (picture 16) and
orchards to the right.

(17) Warning sign on the floodbank

(18) Rotting boat near Lower Halstow

(19) St Margaret's, Lower Halstow

(20) The Three Tuns, Lower Halstow

There were many signs along the floodbank advising of various types of hazards in the marshes.
The sign in picture 17 warns of a sudden drop and deep mud.

Further along the floodbank, the path passes another old boat rotting away
in the mudflats surrounding Halstow Creek (picture 18).

At the end of Halstow Creek the route passes a small wharf and then turns left
along a minor road towards the church of St Margaret of Antioch on the edge of
the village of Lower Halstow (picture 19).
At this point I left the Saxon Shore Way for the day, having covered 17.5km
of the trail according to my GPS.

Heading into the village I soon found the popular Three Tuns pub (picture 20),
where I enjoyed a superb late lunch before catching a bus to Sittingbourne Station.